They stopped at the tents to say good-night to Purr.
“Nothing terrible is about to happen from our standpoint. “ Purr said. “Tomorrow Richard is going to get a look at the ship’s return a hundred years ago, and we are all going to write letters to Earth. And anyway, they all really did die a hundred years ago. And even if your idea is carried out in ten years or more, or a hundred years down the line, it hardly matters.”
“ Some comfort you are!” Gromozeka said, and collapsed into his bed.
Alice held back at the entrance. A thought had occurred to her.
“Which tent are you in?” She asked Purr.
“The third from the end.”
“Then don’t go to sleep.” Alice said. “I have to have a word with you. But only after everyone else is asleep.”
Gromozeka readied himself for bed noisly, snorting and howling.
“Listen.”Alice asked him. “Just how were you going to give the astronauts their shots?” She asked. “They would hardly have agreed to received unknown shots from unknown visitors?”
“Now that would be a stupid idea!” Gromozeka answered in a drowsy voice. “I was not at all planing to give them shots.
“At the Institute of Medicine they gave me this spray,” Gromozeka showed her the small spray can, similar in size to a thermous, which hung around his neck on a chain. Alice had seen it a thousand times and had paid it not the sightest bit of attention. “It acts like a fire extinguisher.” Gromozeka said. “You just have to press the button aand the vaccine comes out as a fine mist under high pressure. The mist will hang in the air and surround everyone and everything. If you direct the spray at the ship’s open air lock, it will fill the ship and kill the virus. The astronauts will breath the mist into their lungs and it will cure them, if they are already sick. In three minutes there will not be a virus of the Space Plague on the planet. Oh well, get some sleep; it’s never going to be used now. Turn down the light; tomorrow we have to get up early.”
11
Alice obediently lowered the light and listened to Gromozeka’s breathing. It was difficult to decide if he was sleeping or not. First because he slept so fitfully. And far more importantly, Gromozeka had three hearts and his breathing was very uneven.
Alice decided to count to a thousand. She managed to reach five hundred and fifty and realized that she was falling asleep, and there was nothing she could do about it. She pinched herself on the hand, but the pinch felt far off and weak, and immediately it seemed that she was riding on the Coleidan train in a small wagon, and the wheels were droning on and on and on…
“Alice.” The train conductor whispered to her.
Obviously, he wanted her ticket. But Alice had no ticket; she had forgotten her money at home. She wanted to tell the conductor that but her mouth froze and would not obey her.
The conductor took her by the hand to escort her from the wagon, and Alice attempted to break free.
And suddenly she realized it was pitch black all around her. That she was in the tent, and not in the train, that she had fallen asleep anyway.
She got to her feet. The bed creaked. Gromozeka rolled over in his dreams and asked:
“Who’s not sleeping?”
Alice froze. Close by she could hear his occasional breathing.
“Who’s there?” Alice whispered.
The tent’s entrance flap was slightly ajar.
“It’s me.” Purr answered.
Alice grabbed her overalls and sneaked outside.
The only light came from a bright moon; not a single lamp could be seen in the camp. It was chilly. Purr was little more than a black shadow amid other shadows.
“I was waiting for you.” The little archaeologist whispered. “But you never came. I am always true to my word. I said I would not sleep, and I did not.”
“Sorry, Purr.” Alice said. “I was counting to a thousand tp give Gromozeka a chance to fall asleep, and fell asleep myself.”
“Why did you ask me not to sleep?”
“Haven’t you guessed?”
“Of course I have.” Purr said. “I just want to hear the words from you.”
“Tomorrow morning Richard will be going into the past. His job is just to case the landing site and get a look at the ship. Petrov won’t permit him to do anything else. But the machine is ready to do its job. So what if I get into it and journey into the past instead of Richard? Gromozeka explained everything that would have to be done to me.”
“You’ll be able to turn on the time machine?”
“I know everything that has to be done.”
“And what will you be doing in the past?”
“I have to get to the launch site, meet the ship when it arrives, and kill the virus.”
“How?”
“Gromozeka has it all ready I know that part too.”
The little archaeologist thought for a few moments.
“It is going to be our only chance, most definitely.” He said. “If it isn’t done now, no one is ever going to do it. But it really is going against all the rules!”
“Quiet! Or you’ll wake everyone up. Think a moment, which is worse, we go against the rules a little, or the whole planet dies. I’m willing to take the risk.”
“You talk like Joan of Arc.” The little Purr said. “You remember her?”
“Of course I remember. She saved France.”
“Correct. I’ve also read about it. Only Joan was seventeen, and you’re only ten.”
“But Joan lived, oh, a thousand years ago, and I live in the twenty-first century.”
“You know,” The little black mass laying at Alice’s feet said, “You’re right. Sometimes you have to throw the rules aside.”
“Great.” Alice said. “In the morning when they wake up tell them what happened. I’ll return only when everything’s done. So they won’t go searching for me.”
“They will very certainly follow after.”
“No, you don’t understand, Purr. They can’t do that at all; the machine can only send one person at the time. It keeps the person in its memory until it has to retrieve him. If you sent a second person before the first got back the first would have to stay in the past for good. Petrov knows this better than anyone else. No matter what happens, they’re going to have to wait for me to get back.”
“That really is too dangerous.”
“No. Not too dangerous.”
“Far too dangerous. That’s why I’ll be going with you.”
“You’re going with me?”
“Yes.”
“But you don’t look anything at all like the Coleidans. They’ll spot you for what you are.”
“But I do look like their cats. So you’re going to go traveling with your kitten. Face it; I know the language better than you do. I’ve studied all we could find and I can support you when you need it. I will be very useful.”
“But I really didn’t want anyone running around after me.” Alice said.
But in fact she was very glad that little Purr would be going along. The idea of traveling in a strange country a hundred years in the past was really very frightening.
“I can hold you in my arms and carry you like a kitten.”
“Better to put me in your bag.”
“Okay, I’ll take the bag. And anyway I have to carry the cannister with the vaccine. That’s the whole reason for going.”
“Then get ready; I have to go back to my tent?”
“For what?”
“For money; I have local money in my lab. We’re going to have to buy train tickets. Then I want to make myself a tail and drop off my clothing. The Coleidans don’t have cats with clothing. I really don’t want to go traipsing all over a strange planet in my birthday suit, but what else can I do?”
“It doesn’t matter, and really, you’re not naked.” Alice said. “You have a really marvelous coat of fur.”
“Thank you.” Purr pipped up. “But we have very different views on the same subject.”
He raised small puffs of sand as he ran to his tent.
Alice pulled on the jump suit, then slipped back into the tent and took the cannister with the vaccine from the nail. Gromozeka still slept; he was breathing loudly, and his tentacles spilled from the wide bed onto the floor.